A Shadow of Ourselves

As the
search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) enters a new phase, with the
recent start of observations for radio signals from other worlds with the SETI
Institute's Allen Telescope Array, the international scientific community has
begun preparing all the more earnestly for the cascade of events that would
follow the detection of an alien civilization. Among the most important
questions humankind will ponder on that day is whether
we should reply, and if so, what we should say.

If such a
signal from the stars bears a readily intelligible message, some of our choices
may be laid out for us. Perhaps, some have argued, a message from
extraterrestrials will include their suggestions for a reply. After all, the
reasoning goes, they will probably have made contact with many other
civilizations before us, so they will be well versed in the productive first
steps in interspecies communication.

Personally,
I am skeptical that we will be able to decode a message from another world with
ease. But whether we know what they are saying, or whether we only have
evidence that intelligence exists beyond Earth, if we choose to reply, we will
need to decide what we should say about ourselves.

Older
neighbors

But what
could we say that would be of interest to extraterrestrials?

Before we
answer that question, we must acknowledge that any extraterrestrials we make
contact with may well be thousands or millions of years more
advanced than we are. Why do SETI scientists assume this? Because for our search to succeed, it needs to be true.

If the
galaxy is populated only by young civilizations that have the capacity for
interstellar communication for only a few decades before they destroy
themselves or simply lose interest in making contact with other worlds, then we
will effectively be isolated, alone in the universe. If other civilizations
transmit evidence of their existence for only a few decades ? the length of
time that humans have been capable of interstellar communication ? and then
they lose the interest or ability to make contact, it's extremely unlikely that
the precise time they are transmitting and the time that we are listening will
coincide. On a galactic scale, where time is measured in billions of years, it
is extremely unlikely that these two "blips" would happen at the same
time. This would be as unlikely as two fireflies each lighting up once, at
exactly the same time, during the course of a long, dark night. The chance that
both would flash on simultaneously is virtually zero; it's more likely their flashes would be separated by minutes or hours.
So too is it unlikely that two short-lived civilizations that had evolved
independently of one another would come into being at almost precisely the same
time in the fourteen billion year history of our galaxy.

If we hear
from a distant civilization, on purely statistical grounds it's very likely they
will be our elders.

Images
of light and darkness

The most
detailed messages thus far sent to another civilization were the recordings
borne by two Voyager
spacecraft, which will continue to drift between the stars for millions of
years after having completed their primary mission of planetary exploration
within our solar system.

Perhaps the
most striking commonality of the more than a hundred pictures and drawings on
the Voyager recordings is that their depictions of humankind are universally
positive. The photographs abound with images of family and cooperation. But
nowhere in these images do we see direct evidence of humanity's darker side.
Absent are any images of poverty or war, of environmental degradation or
genocide.

Presenting
the positive side of life on Earth in the Voyager recordings was a natural
attempt to put our best foot forward. But, I would argue, perhaps the most
important contribution we could make in an interstellar conversation would be
to acknowledge those parts of ourselves that we are least proud of.

If another
civilization is much older than we are, it will have made its way through the
bottleneck of technological adolescence, where a civilization's
self-destructive capacity outweighs its social maturity. We may be in a poor
position to advise another civilization about how to be more
wise. But we are quite well-suited to provide a reminder of what life is
like for a civilization that does not have the confidence that it will continue
to exist into the coming centuries and millennia. Our greatest contribution to
an interstellar dialogue may come, not by emphasizing our accomplishments and
virtues, but by recognizing our foibles and frailties. And in the process, we
may learn important lessons about ourselves.

Acknowledging
our shadow

The
psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung believed that maturity depends on an ability to
connect with our "shadow" side: those aspects of ourselves we
normally try to hide from. "Unfortunately, there can be no doubt that man
is, on the whole, less good than he imagines himself or wants to be," Jung
wrote. And the consequences of not facing our shadow side are ominous.
"Everyone carries a shadow," Jung continued, "and the less it is
embodied in the individual's conscious life, the blacker and darker it is. If
an inferiority is conscious, one always has a chance to correct it .... But if it is repressed and isolated from
consciousness, it never gets corrected."

We might
well imagine a more comprehensive message than the Voyager recordings that gave
additional details about our cultures but failed to highlight the current
threats to our environment, the costs of war, or the strife between nations and
ethnicities. But might not such an attempt to put the best face on our current
situation unintentionally reveal a potentially far more dangerous fault of
humankind: a tendency to hide from our own problems and to avoid these threats
to our very existence?

Some have
suggested that the greatest value of contacting other civilizations may be a
chance to glimpse into our future. If we learn that other civilizations have
been able to survive through their technological adolescence, we would have new
reason to hope that our own civilization will survive as well.

But even if
we never make
contact with another world, the process of preparing for contact may help
us become better, more integrated humans. By reflecting on how we would portray
ourselves to other worlds, we also have an opportunity to grow in our own
self-understanding. And part of that increased self-understanding can come
about through a recognition of those aspects of
ourselves that we would rather not be true, but that are a part of ourselves.

In a sense,
the composition of messages to other worlds becomes a process not merely of
being in touch with alien worlds beyond, but of unknown worlds within. And such
an exploration into our souls requires as much fortitude as does building and
sustaining telescopes that will search the stars for decades and centuries, seeking
evidence of life beyond Earth. As we look within, let's not forget to look at
those parts of ourselves that we would rather look away from. As Jung reminded
us, "no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral
effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the
personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any
kind of self-knowledge."

Douglas Vakoch is the Director of Interstellar Message Composition
at the SETI Institute and Chair of the Faculty at the California Institute of
Integral Studies.